Broadcast AM DX'ing!

[KB1PYW]

Hello...

So I'm a new ham, and don't even have a radio yet.. But I do have an AM receiver and have been tinkering with some different antennas..

I don't have a Coax input on my receiver (gnd and antenna), and whenever I seem to run something outside I just get a bunch of static. So I'm playing with indoor stuff..

The latest creation is a bunch of wire wrapped around some tupperware to make a loading coil. I'm using old RCA wires for "shielded cable" (which seems to help more than my inductor.. But I was able to pick up several stations..

1070 CBA (in Canda) ~250 Miles
1090 WBAL(Baltimore) ~400 Miles
1100 WTAM(Cleveland) ~500 Miles
1110 WBT (Charlotte, NC) ~750 Miles
1130 WBBR(NY, NY) ~200 Miles

For some reason I'm not getting 730 out of Quebec which I got last night with just a wire, and I find it curious that the distant stations I was able to copy are all in that one narrow section..

Yeah, not amateur related, but its all I have to play with at the moment..

Jer

[kl7aj]

Hello...

So I'm a new ham, and don't even have a radio yet.. But I do have an AM receiver and have been tinkering with some different antennas..

I don't have a Coax input on my receiver (gnd and antenna), and whenever I seem to run something outside I just get a bunch of static. So I'm playing with indoor stuff..

The latest creation is a bunch of wire wrapped around some tupperware to make a loading coil. I'm using old RCA wires for "shielded cable" (which seems to help more than my inductor.. But I was able to pick up several stations..

1070 CBA (in Canda) ~250 Miles
1090 WBAL(Baltimore) ~400 Miles
1100 WTAM(Cleveland) ~500 Miles
1110 WBT (Charlotte, NC) ~750 Miles
1130 WBBR(NY, NY) ~200 Miles

For some reason I'm not getting 730 out of Quebec which I got last night with just a wire, and I find it curious that the distant stations I was able to copy are all in that one narrow section..

Yeah, not amateur related, but its all I have to play with at the moment..

Jer

Go to 500kc.com for some cool techniques for A.M. broadcast DXing

Eric

[k2kli]

Hi Jer,

Welcome to amateur radio. AM DXing is a lot of fun to many people. If you ever receive one of my stations I will QSL. I am the transmitter engineer for seven stations in Upstate NY, four of which are AM's, from 1 to 50 kW.

Kelli N2GFT

[KB1PYW]

Hi Jer,

Welcome to amateur radio. AM DXing is a lot of fun to many people. If you ever receive one of my stations I will QSL. I am the transmitter engineer for seven stations in Upstate NY, four of which are AM's, from 1 to 50 kW.

Kelli N2GFT

I was just listening to 1540 WDCD; is that one of them?? :)

Jer

[k2kli]

I was just listening to 1540 WDCD; is that one of them?? :)

Jer

No, but I am very familiar with that station. I worked for Crawford back when they bought it and I was the engineer for WDCW (1390) in Syracuse, which is a very odd three tower DA-2 with top-loading and three different tower heights to achieve a radiation pattern that is not only directional in the normal sense, but also directional in the vertical plane to reduce skywave in certain directions.

I am presently the engineer for WWKB (1520, 50 kW DA1), WGR (550 5 kW DA-N), WBEN (930 5 kW DA-N) and WWWS (1400 1 kW ND2).

Kelli N2GFT

[KC6ZLV]

If you want to have some real fun with AM DXing, take a camping trip to someplace far away from transmitters. Take at least 100 ft of wire with you for a random-length antenna. There are plenty of loop antenna projects on the internet that could possibly work better than 100 ft of wire, plus a loop will give you the ability to "null out" some stations and allow you to hear a few others on a given frequency.

Here are a few of the not so strong ones I've heard in Sacramento, CA

590 - KSSK, Honolulu, HI
730 - CHMJ, Vancouver, BC "AM-730, all traffic, all the time."
730 - XEX, Distrito Federal, Mexico "Mas Deportes 730 XEX. Donde vive tu pasion!"
740 - KRMG, Tulsa, OK "News Talk 7-40"
740 - CBX, Edmonton, AB
760 - CJME, Regina, SK
770 - KKIB, Albuquerque, NM
790 - CFCW, Edmonton, AB
800 - XEROK, Ciudad Juarez, CH, Mexico "Canonazos Internacionales" (150,000 watts)
800 - PJB3, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (500,000 watts)
810 - WHB, Kansas City, MO (barely heard under KGO)
540 - XEURE, Ures, Sonora, Mexico
550 - KOAC, Corvalis, OR (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
550 - KRAI, Craig, CO (Country)
567 - KGUM, Agana, GU "K57"
570 - WNAX, Yangton, SD
570 - CKSW, Swift Current, SK (Country)
580 - CKUA, Edmunton, AB
600 - KOGO, San Diego, CA (Talk)
600 - CKDB, Vancouver, BC "Vancouver's Talk Radio"
620 - CKCK, Regina, SK
620 - KTAR, Phoenix, AZ
630 - CHED, Edmonton, AB
660 - CFFR, Calgary, AB
660 - KAPS, Mt Vernon, WA (Country)
680 - CJOB, Winnepeg, MB
690 - XETRA, Tijuana, Mexico
690 - KHNR, Honolulu, HI

[KG6YTZ]

If you want to have some real fun with AM DXing, take a camping trip to someplace far away from transmitters.

Here are a few of the not so strong ones I've heard in Sacramento, CA

770 - KKIB, Albuquerque, NM
600 - KOGO, San Diego, CA (Talk)
690 - XETRA, Tijuana, Mexico
Those are the ones from your list that I can get here. Of course, KOGO and XETRA aren't all that far away from here, so they're 24/7 fixtures on the band. XETRA was a very popular music station - "The Mighty 690" - in the late 70's and early 80's, so I used to listen to that one quite a bit. The regular "DX" stations here are San Francisco [KFRC and KCBS-AM], Salt Lake City [not sure of the call], KOA from Denver, KBOI from Boise, and that Albuqueque station [KKOB, not KKIB]. KDWN 720 from Las Vegas is sometimes audible when local 710 doesn't swamp it. Occasionally, I can also get KOMO from Seattle - the best "regular" DX - but my best catch to date remains WWL from New Orelans, heard in Feb. 1979. I'm not sure that I've ever heard any midwest, northeast, or Canada, but sometimes the really weak ones just aren't good enough for me to copy a call, so I often don't really know where the heck I'm listening to. And QSB to nothing three seconds before the station ID... DANGIT!!!

The AM broadcast band here is very crowded, particularly the bottom 700 kHz or so, so most of the truly good DX is buried by local signals on top of them or adjacent to them. L.A. is generally a horrible place for AM BCB DX'ing. I'd love to take my Kaito KA-1102 out to the middle of nowhere some night and just "spin the knob."

It was fun being in Redmond, OR. in July '05 and listening to KNX 1070 from "back home" here. :)

500kc.com? I'll have to take a look at that one!

[WA9ZZZ]

You might want to try the radio in your car, too. Some of them work quite well with just that short whip. But in some cars the AM radio gets wiped out by internally generated noise (e.g., electric fuel pump). You'll just have to try it to see how well yours works. The buttons on my car radio are set to Chicago, New York and Boston stations, plus a couple of locals.

AM broadcast channels are not all equal. Some are referred to as "clear channel" (not to be confused with Clear Channel the conglomerate) and only have a few high power stations. These should be easy for you to pick up.

Here are a few more that you would have a chance to pick up at night from your area:
700 WLW Cincinnati
740 ???? Toronto
760 WJR Detroit
780 WBBM Chicago
800 CKLW Windsor
880 WCBS New York

[k2kli]

AM broadcast channels are not all equal. Some are referred to as "clear channel" (not to be confused with Clear Channel the conglomerate) and only have a few high power stations. These should be easy for you to pick up.

There really are no "clears" anymore. Even the former "clears" now co-channel at night with multiple stations in most cases. But yes, of course higher power means a better chance of being heard, though I have recieved QSL's from Europe for AM stations running a kilowatt on a very cluttered frequency. Radio is full of surprises, which is why it fascinates me so.

If you're a reasonable distance from the nearest transmitter site, a simple longwire antenna will net you quite a catch.

Kelli N2GFT

[W4HAY]

Here's something fun to play with: loop antennas (http://www.schmarder.com/radios/loops/index.htm). Prototypes can be kludged together on an old cardboard box.

The performance can be quite good, and a well-built one will have a sharp null that can really knock down an interfering signal.

[KI4SYC]

For N2GFT...

IEN-GA Ira Elbert New, III, Watkinsville - 2002 Nissan Sentra GXE
In-Dash Audio System CY310

1520 WWKB NY Buffalo - 1/07/05 1955 - Classic hits from the 50's and 60's. Decent signal that would fade under KOKC in Oklahoma City, OK from time-to-time. "KB 1520, Classic hits from the 50's and 60's". (IEN-GA)

WWKB is a nightly visitor here at times in northeast Georgia. I've also logged WWKB on a DRAKE R8B, a SANGEAN ATS 909 and a SONY ICF-2010. Needless to say, I am a fan of BCB DX. I can't wait to see the QSL Card!

Bert

[KC6ZLV]

You might want to try the radio in your car, too. Some of them work quite well with just that short whip.

Most of the AM receivers in later car radios are very poor. Sensitivity is nowhere near what it used to be prior to the mid-90's. Selectivity is excessively wide, with the thought that wider selectivity will improve audio quality. The end result is noisy reception. Some of the OEM tuners are OK, at best. Most of the aftermarket tuners are useless for anything other than local stations on the AM band.

[k2kli]

For N2GFT...

IEN-GA Ira Elbert New, III, Watkinsville - 2002 Nissan Sentra GXE
In-Dash Audio System CY310

1520 WWKB NY Buffalo - 1/07/05 1955 - Classic hits from the 50's and 60's. Decent signal that would fade under KOKC in Oklahoma City, OK from time-to-time. "KB 1520, Classic hits from the 50's and 60's". (IEN-GA)

WWKB is a nightly visitor here at times in northeast Georgia. I've also logged WWKB on a DRAKE R8B, a SANGEAN ATS 909 and a SONY ICF-2010. Needless to say, I am a fan of BCB DX. I can't wait to see the QSL Card!

Bert

Hi Bert,

You've been saving that QSL entry for three years? LOL

Yes, KB should come in pretty good in GA, though most of the signal goes NE.

Kelli N2GFT

[KI4SYC]

Nope...I haven't been saving it. I just hardly ever send away for QSL Cards. I used to work in broadcasting and I know how busy it can be around a station. I feel for the engineers.

If I need to listen again just let me know. I'll be more than happy to give you a new signal report.

Bert

[VE1IDX]

If you REALLY want to have some fun on the AM broadcast band and maybe even the longwave band then get a good receiver,even a decent general coverage ham transceiver,and tune the band in USB with narrow filters. Listen for the heterodynes in between the standard 10 KHz channels. You would be surprised what you will hear. I have logged many stations from Europe,North Africa and even the Middle East and South America on the standard AM broadcast band or on longwave. The rural location on the east coast and the 600 foot long antenna I had at the time helped a bit.;)

[KD4LEI]

Back between my Freshmen and Soph years of highschool.

I put up two 15 feet strands of copper wire and wrapped them both around the telescoping FM antenna on my "boom box". They were wrapped down near where the screw attaches the antenna to the swivel base. I then put them in a V shape to see what I could pick up.

With some dialing around, I picked up a radio station out of Port Arthur TX from my home in SE Ohio. It baffled me, but hey it was cool.

[KC6ZLV]

Back between my Freshmen and Soph years of highschool.

I put up two 15 feet strands of copper wire and wrapped them both around the telescoping FM antenna on my "boom box". They were wrapped down near there the screw attaches the antenna to the swivel base. I then put them in a V shape to see what I could pick up.

With some dialing around, I picked up a radio station out of Port Arthur TX from my home in SE Ohio. It baffled me, but hey it was cool.

Tropo or Es?

[KD4LEI]

Tropo or Es?

Happened during the day around lunchtime. I was up near 107.5 and tuned it in with the analog dial.

It wasn't strong enough then for tropo since that would had happened closer to evening.

It didn't last long because I never heard it again after about 5 minutes or so.

[KG6YTZ]

Were you replying to me, triple-Zed?

You might want to try the radio in your car, too. Some of them work quite well with just that short whip.
Ohyeah. I've done that many times. The AM radio in mom's old 1967 [?] Dodge Coronet was particularly effective, and I seem to recall it was on that radio that I first heard KBOI [Boise, ID] and the Salt Lake City station.

But in some cars the AM radio gets wiped out by internally generated noise (e.g., electric fuel pump). You'll just have to try it to see how well yours works.
The factory/JBL system in my '95 Lincoln Mark VIII seems to be relatively free from under-the-hood noises. It could be a lot more selective, though. I've had a couple of Sony units that have very good receivers - Denver, Albuquerque, and San Francisco are no problem on those.

Here are a few more that you would have a chance to pick up at night from your area:
700 WLW Cincinnati
Between two strong adjacent signals, 690 from Tijuana and 710 from Los Angeles. Gimme a good HF rig with good filters and I might be able to slope out the adjacent stuff [once I learn how to use the filters :D].

740 ???? Toronto
Also KCBS-AM San Francisco, I believe.

760 WJR Detroit
KFMB San Diego, and adjacent to 770, which is KKOB Albuquerque and a nearby TIS transmitter.

780 WBBM Chicago
Adjacent to 770 and local 790 KABC. Also KKOH from Reno, NV.

800 CKLW Windsor
Adjacent to 790 KABC and 810 KGO San Francisco. I think I might have heard that one once, but I'm not sure. I believe I recall once hearing a very weak C prefix somewhere on the band, or at least a station ID'ing as the CBC, but if I'm not 100% positive, I don't count it as a catch.

880 WCBS New York
Dunno about that one, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's buried by some Mexican noise.

By the way, here's a station list I found (http://www.cosmosradio.com/am.htm) while Googling info for this reply. :)

[KC6ZLV]

KG6YTZ:

I sometimes use SSB opposite the station causing adjacent channel interference to hear stations better. For example, if I'm trying to listen to 660 Khz when experiencing interference from KSTE 650, I listen to USB on 660. It works out fairly well. If I'm trying to hear a station between two strong stations sometimes I'll use CW-wide, and with the aid of a little IF-shift, it doesn't sound too bad. More often than not, it does the trick. I'm using a Yaesu FT-920, in case you are wondering.

[nx6d]

Impressive! Good work!

I thought I was slick with my 1983 vintage clear channel QSL cards from east of the Mississippi, but that's a great list.

My most fun dxing was hearing WCCO (Minneapolis) on 830 kc fading in and out with KIKI (Honolulu) on the same frequency from Berkeley, CA. Couldn't get KIKI to QSL, despite numerous attempts.

This thread has got me thinking I should get back into BCB DX.

Dave NX6D
Modoc County,CA


If you want to have some real fun with AM DXing, take a camping trip to someplace far away from transmitters. Take at least 100 ft of wire with you for a random-length antenna. There are plenty of loop antenna projects on the internet that could possibly work better than 100 ft of wire, plus a loop will give you the ability to "null out" some stations and allow you to hear a few others on a given frequency.

Here are a few of the not so strong ones I've heard in Sacramento, CA

590 - KSSK, Honolulu, HI
730 - CHMJ, Vancouver, BC "AM-730, all traffic, all the time."
730 - XEX, Distrito Federal, Mexico "Mas Deportes 730 XEX. Donde vive tu pasion!"
740 - KRMG, Tulsa, OK "News Talk 7-40"
740 - CBX, Edmonton, AB
760 - CJME, Regina, SK
770 - KKIB, Albuquerque, NM
790 - CFCW, Edmonton, AB
800 - XEROK, Ciudad Juarez, CH, Mexico "Canonazos Internacionales" (150,000 watts)
800 - PJB3, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (500,000 watts)
810 - WHB, Kansas City, MO (barely heard under KGO)
540 - XEURE, Ures, Sonora, Mexico
550 - KOAC, Corvalis, OR (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
550 - KRAI, Craig, CO (Country)
567 - KGUM, Agana, GU "K57"
570 - WNAX, Yangton, SD
570 - CKSW, Swift Current, SK (Country)
580 - CKUA, Edmunton, AB
600 - KOGO, San Diego, CA (Talk)
600 - CKDB, Vancouver, BC "Vancouver's Talk Radio"
620 - CKCK, Regina, SK
620 - KTAR, Phoenix, AZ
630 - CHED, Edmonton, AB
660 - CFFR, Calgary, AB
660 - KAPS, Mt Vernon, WA (Country)
680 - CJOB, Winnepeg, MB
690 - XETRA, Tijuana, Mexico
690 - KHNR, Honolulu, HI

[nx6d]

Those are the ones from your list that I can get here. Of course, KOGO and XETRA aren't all that far away from here, so they're 24/7 fixtures on the band. XETRA was a very popular music station - "The Mighty 690" - in the late 70's and early 80's, so I used to listen to that one quite a bit. The regular "DX" stations here are San Francisco [KFRC and KCBS-AM], Salt Lake City [not sure of the call], KOA from Denver, KBOI from Boise, and that Albuqueque station [KKOB, not KKIB]. KDWN 720 from Las Vegas is sometimes audible when local 710 doesn't swamp it. Occasionally, I can also get KOMO from Seattle - the best "regular" DX - but my best catch to date remains WWL from New Orelans, heard in Feb. 1979. I'm not sure that I've ever heard any midwest, northeast, or Canada, but sometimes the really weak ones just aren't good enough for me to copy a call, so I often don't really know where the heck I'm listening to. And QSB to nothing three seconds before the station ID... DANGIT!!!


Wow. It's like taking a trip in a time machine. I've qsl's for all those stations from the '80's. The Salt Lake City station is KSL, BTW.

KFRC went Jesus, unfortunately, and I think they changed the callsign. I can't hear KCBS up here at all, but KNX blasts in here right at dusk and beyond. It's funny listening to KNX during drive time. Why is every road in LA called "the"? You know, "the 405", "The 5" etc?

Dave NX6D
Modoc County, CA

[KG6YTZ]

It's funny listening to KNX during drive time. Why is every road in LA called "the"? You know, "the 405", "The 5" etc?
Because they're not just wide roads that happen to have numbers instead of names - they're freeways, separate and distinct from "surface streets." The 10 Freeway, the 210 Freeway, the 405 Freeway... But that's redundant, because everybody knows they're freeways, so we just call 'em the 10, the 210, the 405, etc. It's an abbreviation. :p :D

[WA6MHZ]

BCB DXing is what got me into Ham Radio. I used to listen at night on my National NC-88 to see how far away I could hear stations from. I would find an obscure station down between a couple others, listen for hours recording all the songs and programming, and then send a SWL report to get the QSL card. It was a lot of fun, and I probably confrimed half the states! But out here in California, all we get is Mexican stations drowning out USA stations. Mexcians are really into AM band radio, and must have every frequency spoken for. Wish I could null out Mexico so I could hear back East. But then, because of my work schedule, I get up at 4AM and can't stay up late to listen to DX

[KG6YTZ]

Wish I could null out Mexico so I could hear back East.
Ain't that the truth! Yeesh. Between the local signals and the Mexican blowtorches, all the good stuff is swamped. You have to go above about 1200 or so to find anything even remotely like open space, but now we're getting a lot of loud Chinese in there too.

If you guys hear any Chinese in the upper part of the AM broadcast band, it's probably coming from L.A.

[KC6ZLV]

Mexico has very few "blowtorches." It is very likely the Mexican stations you hear booming in are from the US, and it isn't only 5KW regional stations. There are quite a few 50KW clear channel stations that are now in Spanish. 940 from Fresno (formerly KFRE) dominates that frequency on the West Coast at night. That was 10% of the radio stations in this country in 1998, 18% in 2005, guestimated to be 24% now, and the number of Spanish stations are expected to double in the next four to five years.

Wow. It's like taking a trip in a time machine. I've qsl's for all those stations from the '80's. The Salt Lake City station is KSL, BTW.

KFRC went Jesus, unfortunately, and I think they changed the callsign. I can't hear KCBS up here at all, but KNX blasts in here right at dusk and beyond. It's funny listening to KNX during drive time. Why is every road in LA called "the"? You know, "the 405", "The 5" etc?

Dave NX6D
Modoc County, CA

KFRC was sold to a religious organization. Yes, they have THAT much money to buy a station like KFRC.

[nx6d]

Mexico has very few "blowtorches." It is very likely the Mexican stations you hear booming in are from the US, and it isn't only 5KW regional stations. There are quite a few 50KW clear channel stations that are now in Spanish. 940 from Fresno (formerly KFRE) dominates that frequency on the West Coast at night. That was 10% of the radio stations in this country in 1998, 18% in 2005, guestimated to be 24% now, and the number of Spanish stations are expected to double in the next four to five years.

KFRC was sold to a religious organization. Yes, they have THAT much money to buy a station like KFRC.

KFRC was THE Top 40 station in the Bay Area when I was growing up. You toggled between KFRC, KYA (1260-gone since 1982) and KLIV in San Jose. I even had a chance to meet KFRC jock Dr. Don Rose at a business meeting. Really nice guy, no different than his radio persona. He lived in a huge house in a gated community in Danville and commuted by limousine to work every day. He was that important to KFRC.

What was funny is some of the jocks I remember from the '70's were STILL at KFRC when the religious people took over. Bobby Ocean comes to mind.

ZLV, what radio were you using in the field? Most of my qsl'd contacts come off of either a Realistic TRF portable ("tuned circuit"-great radio) or my old Marantz receiver model 2200 or something like that. The AM side was great!

Up here in Modoc, it's a frenzy doing the BCB DX thing. I'm constantly spinning the Realistic around to try to catch callsigns. The problem now is all the syndicated stuff out there. If you don't catch some of these stations at the top of the hour, you've wasted your time. I'm lucky in that I don't have KGO, KCBS and KNBR blasting the front end of my receiver like I did in the Bay Area.

Dave NX6D
Modoc County, CA

[KA8DKT]

No, but I am very familiar with that station. I worked for Crawford back when they bought it and I was the engineer for WDCW (1390) in Syracuse, which is a very odd three tower DA-2 with top-loading and three different tower heights to achieve a radiation pattern that is not only directional in the normal sense, but also directional in the vertical plane to reduce skywave in certain directions.

I am presently the engineer for WWKB (1520, 50 kW DA1), WGR (550 5 kW DA-N), WBEN (930 5 kW DA-N) and WWWS (1400 1 kW ND2).

Kelli N2GFTKelli-
I was a broadcast engineer in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio for many years.
By the way, wasn't 1520 WKBW for a long time?
-gary

[KC4HGH]

AM BCB DXing got me into ham radio as well...and, even though it was a blowtorch in it's day, KAAY, as a Top 40 station, was a blast! Beaker Street was my favorite, of which I've collected airchecks and still listen to today....

When I get tired of the crap on ham radio, I still tune around on the AM BCB.